But since the game's launch numerous clones have also been released. The makers of "Threes" criticized the cloning culture of the gaming world in an extensive blog post that chronicles the 14-month process that it took to make their game.

"We do believe imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but ideally the imitation happens after we’ve had time to descend slowly from the peak -- not the moment we plant the flag," they said in the post.

The makers of "Threes" specifically called out "2048," a free Web game that is similar to "Threes." "2048" is one of if not the most popular clone so far.

It was created by Italian Web developer Gabriele Cirulli over the course of a weekend, and it became a viral hit after it was posted on tech news forum Hacker News.

Cirulli told The Times that he was inspired to create "2048" after playing "1024" and another game that is also called "2048," two other clones of the game "Threes."

"I just wanted to make my own version with animations and slightly different gameplay, mostly as an exercise," said Cirulli. "2048" is Cirulli's only game, and he said he has no plans to make more.

"My incursion in the games industry was accidental!" Cirulli said in an email.

In their blog post, the makers of "Threes" said "2048" was "broken" and insisted that their game was much better and more challenging.

"We wanted players to be able to play Threes over many months, if not years. We both beat 2048 on our first tries," they said.

The creators of "Threes" said they understand imitation, but not when it comes just weeks after they release their product.

"The branching of all these ideas can happen so fast nowadays that it seems tiny games like Threes are destined to be lost in the underbrush of copycats, me-toos and iterators," they said.